[Beowulf] IEEE 1588 (PTP) - a better cluster clock?

[Patrick Geoffray]

Hi Jim,

Jim Lux wrote:
> Highly parallelized real time signal processing?  Seems like a classic 

Wouldn't you need a real-time OS and a real-time communication layer to 
do real-time processing? Or at least within the same level of time 
accuracy ? The Linux scheduler is still on a 10ms quantum of time, and 
QoS in network is still about what to drop first, not guaranteeing 
resources.

If PTP is as good (accuracy, resource usage) as the specialized methods, 
then using a common implementation is the best deal. However, 
application-specific/architecture-specific synchronization may be more 
efficient. The trade-off is between the performance of the first versus 
the cost of the second. That's the rule behind commodity solutions.

Patrick